Edinburgh Secular Society (ESS) has presented its case
for the removal of unelected religious representatives on local
authority education committees to the Scottish Government's Petitions
Committee.
On Tuesday 14 January ESS vice chair Colin
Emerson was accompanied by NSS Council member Professor Norman Bonney
at the Scottish Parliament building at Holyrood.
ESS
lodged the Holyrood petition last year, seeking to repeal this
iniquitous aspect of local government law whilst pointing to recent
Scottish census results, which show nearly half of Scots say they have
no religious belief.
Their campaign received an
unexpected and welcome boost when John Finnie MSP submitted a Private
Member's Bill in the Scottish Parliament also seeking to abolish this
outdated privilege.
Highlands and Islands MSP Mr Finnie, who quit the
Scottish National Party last year after a row over NATO membership
post-independence, said his bill would make local government more
accountable and transparent to the electorate.
Both
the ESS petition and John Finnie's bill have drawn fierce opposition
from the churches, anxious to retain historic privileges in an
increasingly secular Scotland.
This particular privilege dates back to
1872 when responsibility for schools was taken by the state from
churches and others, such as private benefactors and philanthropic
societies, but as part of this deal the churches were still granted a
say in the education system by having right to appoint these
representatives.
Defending the privilege, a Church of
Scotland spokesperson referred to the Church's centuries-old vision of a
school in every parish, which helped in establishing Scotland's
universal education system.
Alistair McBay, NSS
spokesperson for Scotland, commented: "The reality is that when the
churches handed over control of schools to the Government in 1872, it
was because the system was in disarray. Much of the school inspection
regime was denominational, with more time spent testing orthodoxy than
efficiency and achievement, while the schism in the national church
produced wasteful duplication of effort in many areas. Free Church and
established Kirk schools competed for pupils, while in many burghs there
was conflict between church and municipality for control of the burgh
school.
"The current position, whereby religious
representatives are appointed to all 32 local authority education
committees in Scotland, is untenable in a democratic society. These
individuals are not elected, but have full voting rights and are merely
nominated by their respective religious organisations. They are
accountable only to their respective religious organisations and cannot
be voted out by the public".
The ESS presentation
stated that the reform would enhance local accountability by removing a
privilege that is inherently and profoundly undemocratic. During
research for the petition, the ESS discovered that despite the Church of
Scotland's claim that its representatives were impartial on local
authority education committees, its Church and Society Council reported
to the General Assembly that it estimated Church Representatives held
the balance of power on 19 local authority education committees.
During
the petitions hearing, one MSP remarked he was aware in some local
authorities that the churches had "exerted undue influence over
decisions made in education committees", particularly in the case of
joint campus proposals involving Catholic and non-denominational
schools. These are experiments to tackle Scotland's sectarian school
system but have been the subject of some controversy, with the Scottish
Catholic Church demanding that such schools have separate entrances,
separate staffrooms and even separate staff or 'denominational' toilets
as essential components in preserving the 'ethos' of Catholic schools.
Mr
McBay commented: "If this MSP is correct in his assertion, it
demonstrates that an active sectarianism is not the sole province of
football supporters in Glasgow but practised by the churches themselves
in local government committees, and in relation to the education of
Scotland's children".
Commenting on the petition,
Colin Emerson, ESS Vice-chair said: "To afford a particular section of
society a privileged position within the decision making process of
local government, based solely on their particular and personal
religious beliefs, is profoundly and inherently undemocratic, unfair and
discriminatory. It strikes against those specific virtues of justice
and integrity underpinning our society and which lie at the heart of the
Scottish Parliament".
The next stage of the Petitions process involves consultation with a range of faith groups and local authority oversight groups.